Has such an announcement been made?
No.
But look at the evidence. MS was "shocked" at the Bioware/Pandemic aquisition and was going to have "discussions" and "talk" with EA about Mass Effect. If they had the trilogy exclusive, you would have expected, "This doesn't change our business relationship or the trilogy exclusive on the Xbox 360". Further, the recent comments in their spin/damage control interview they distance themselves from the game to a degree and open the door to "well, consumers didn't respond well" as an out for not tieing up exclusivity.
Don’t assume that – we’re having discussions with BioWare. The first Mass Effect is still to come out, and I don’t want to get away ahead of that – the game has been built completely by that developer’s rules; it’s BioWare telling a story the way they want to tell it. So firstly I want to see how gamers respond to that. As for our future in that franchise – we feel very good about it, it’s still something that plays an important part in our portfolio, BioWare are a great partner, and I’m looking forward to discussing what we can do with them.
Yeah, "Bungie did Halo 3 their way, so I want to see how gamers respond to Halo 3 before we tie up Halo 4". Bioware is a AAA developer and has made a lot of great games. There should be no question--especially when you have been hyping the game yourself.
Looks pretty bad when you have to downplay your own exclusives.
Truly, a couple more heads at MGS need to roll. Bach and Kim seem like really nice guys, but the studio has been mismanaged, they haven't managed Rare or Bungie well at all, they destroyed FASA and Digital Anvil, and their series of gaffs have sneaked under the radar mainly due to Sony's incompetance. MS started off well, but made a lot of mistakes, both strategical and in execution, and seem to have failed in keeping a focused vision on console cost reduction as well as securing a longterm portfolio for their Xbox brand.
Buying $20M exclusives works great when you are the only console on the market. You fund a company to do a next gen title. As there is no competition they have no real option but to delay--and what better than using MS money to get a headstart on next gen and make a name for yourself. But you still need someone to make titles that push your platform, and you need to cover your bases incase someone comes out first and/or the same time or cheaper and competitively.
A lot of their problems stem from a preoccupation with FY profits (June 2008), and it does appear to a degree they have put 2008 profits above geneational profits. They are in a great position to be the "PS2" of this generation from a 3rd party perspective, but their market penetration is far, far too low. MS lacks the internal studios to do as Nintendo does (release a fair number of internal titles that sell great; 3rd parties not so great) and lacks the 3rd party sales Sony had with the PS2 due to the install base and lacks the depth and breadth of Sony's internal stufios (which benefit from having tens of millions of consumers to sell too... how well would Halo 2 have sold on the PS2?)
MS's financial strategy appears to have been built on quicksand. With no Halo 3 in 2008--and no Mass Effect, Forza Motorsport 2, PGR4, Bioshock [2K] either--MGS doesn't appear to have the titles one-up 2007, even with GOW2. And with a total marketshare that probably won't exceed the mid-twenty million range in consoles sold they won't be reaping the sort of royalties Sony did with the PS2 and PS1. Their console remains overpriced with laughable price movement, horrid perephrial pricing, and high priced games which require you to pay to [
correction] play online. You can see how the Wii and PS3 respond to that. And while Sony is in deep, deep trouble with the PS3, MS has allowed them to hang around. It gets a few killer apps, moves some hardware in Japan and Europe and continues to drive toward some price parity with the Premium in 2008 ... yep, totally mismanaged situation.
MS was in a position to step right into Sony's shoes, but that oppurtunity has passed, and with it the possibility of a strong financial windfall for investors. It seems MS is right now trying to get the table scraps and break even for the year and seems to have lost a lot of input into their future, notable in regards to software.
It says a lot when Bungie gets crapped on days before E3 and are told they need to produce E3 media and that Epic needs to stealth whine to the press about how MS is overbearing in regards to consumer content and milking consumers.
There was a reason Bungie transplanted to their own campus and felt compelled to cut some ties with MS. They aren't being managed well, and that can be seen in their poor execution over the last couple years.
"We are proud to annouced RE5 for the Xbox 360... wuuuhh? You already knew it was coming?"
